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Take on the role of Tanner, a ruthless undercover cop and
a fearless driver, as he becomes immersed in a global car
theft ring. A mysterious buyer has ordered 40 stolen high
performance cars. Tanner wants to know who the buyer is, and
he intends to stop the deal going through; but he is always
one step away from his cover being blown, and time is running
out...
The
third in the Driver franchise (the first two games
were available on the Playstation) features over 70 playable
vehicles, including cars, bikes, boats and buses. You can
collect eight different weapons, including handguns, machine
guns and grenade launchers. And there are over 30 story integrated
missions, over 30 movie sequences featuring the voice talents
of Michael Madsen, Ving Rhames, Michelle Rodriguez and Micky
Rourke. The game also contains three highly detailed cities:
Miami, Nice and Istanbul.
Fans of the original Driver series will no doubt be
keen to see whether this lives up to the hype. The graphics
are amazing - both in game and the linking video sequences.
The gameplay and sound is vastly improved and this could have
been the one must own game of the year.
However,
there
are faults - and they are not minor ones either. Remember
the bugs on the first two games (lack of memory meant that
the movie director worked fine for anything less than 5 minutes,
then the camera had to be positioned behind the car for the
rest of the playback. Also, your car had a habit of crashing
- which resulted in the game freezing as the scenery rotated
over and over). While these bugs don't seem to be evident
in the third instalment, there are other, more annoying problems.
The
movie director seems to be very problematic. On finally finishing
one of the really long and complex missions, I decided to
watch the automatic movie director to view the level again.
However I noticed that several of the guys I had shot and
killed didn't die - and continued to shoot at me. Not only
that, but I got stuck behind a wall - which I hadn't when
I played the game - and then ended up dying. So, I had to
restart that level. The only other time I used this function,
was to make my own movie of another level - which I didn't
manage to complete. I completed directing the replay and then
saved the finished result. However, on playing back the finished
movie I noticed there were several camera angles that had
been replaced with random angles which didn't follow the action
the way I had intended.
I
also noticed that the game occasional crashes for no apparent
reason and you can sometimes drive through solid walls. The
bad guys also have a habit of occasionally dying again and
again. While this is funny - watching them die, stand up and
then die repeatedly - it can prevent you from completing some
of the missions
Another
issue I had originally with the game was the poor design of
the on-foot missions - when you run around on foot it is really
difficult to navigate. Moving the control lever to the left
or right simply has you side-stepping, instead of heading
in the direction you want to go (so you can't see where you
are travelling). However, as you don't spend that much time
on foot this is not a big deal. Also, when you are on foot
you are going to be using your guns most of the time - so
the configuration that makes it a pain to walk around actually
makes it simpler to aim your weapon at the bad guys.
The
AI is flawed too - the other cars don't get out of your way
(like they do in games like Grand Theft Auto) when
you are in a police car with sirens blaring out, and it is
possible to shoot a whole group of bad guys without them ever
firing off a shot in your direction. Cops also don't get out
of their cars when they are chasing you. So, to stop the police
threat, when you are being pursued, it is simply a matter
of getting out of your car and shooting the cops dead. Also,
many of the streets are deserted, which can cause a serious
problem with time based missions - it's very frustrating to
have to run around looking for a vehicle.
But,
and this may seem a little contradictory, these bugs and problems
can almost be overlooked due to the fact that the main gameplay
is very addictive. It's also very unforgiving in places and
can be quite frustrating when you have to keep repeating sections
- but this makes completing these sections all the more rewarding.
While
I'm loathed to compare this to the Grand Theft Auto
range of games, there are many similarities. However, Driv3r
isn't a patch on them. While the scenery in Driv3r
is beautifully detailed, you are usually in such a rush to
complete a mission that you don't get the opportunity to explore
your surroundings properly.
If
the annoying bugs had been ironed out this game would have
received 9/10. But, sadly there are way too many problems
with this release that, considering it costs £45, should
not be there.
Great
game - just below par presentation.
Pete
Boomer
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£32.99
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£34.99
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£34.99
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